Center for Biological Diversity: Congress Urged to Investigate Huge Wastewater Release, Threat of Catastrophic Collapse of Florida's Piney Point Phosphogypsum Stack

WASHINGTON, April 13 (TNSOps) -- The Center for Biological Diversity issued the following news release on April 12, 2021:

Conservation and public-health groups called on Congress today to investigate the near-collapse of the radioactive Piney Point phosphogypsum stack and the ongoing emergency caused by the discharge of hundreds of millions of gallons of wastewater.

The request was made in a letter submitted to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce and the House Committee on Oversight and Reform. The letter highlights not only the unfolding environmental disaster at Piney Point but the nearly three decades of documented environmental crises at the dozens of phosphogypsum stacks throughout the United States. It calls on Congress to:

Investigate the failed regulation of the phosphate industry, phosphogypsum and process wastewater; and Identify areas where Congress can provide additional resources to help the Environmental Protection Agency quickly and comprehensively address these problems.

"Congressional leaders must face the reality that radioactive phosphogypsum stacks across the U.S. are failing," said Jaclyn Lopez, Florida director at the Center for Biological Diversity. "This crisis has been decades in the making, yet state and federal regulators are still failing to protect us from this toxic, radioactive waste. U.S. lawmakers need to act quickly to prevent disasters like Piney Point from happening in communities across the country."

"The phosphate industry should be held accountable and pay for the cleanup of Piney Point. Government officials should ensure the permanent closure of the site and hold the owners responsible for the cost of the cleanup," said Glenn Compton, chairman of ManaSota-88. "We should no longer risk the environmental integrity of Tampa Bay and the health of the surrounding residents."

"Tampa Bay Waterkeeper works hard to ensure our community's right to fishable, drinkable and swimmable waters is protected," said Megan Eakins, board chair for the Tampa Bay Waterkeeper. "Government at every level has failed to protect this community from the Piney Point crisis and we need you to step up now to make sure this doesn't happen again, here or anywhere else."

Phosphogypsum and process wastewater from phosphogypsum facilities are currently excluded from certain federal hazardous waste regulations. On Feb. 8, 2021, more than a dozen groups petitioned the EPA to improve federal oversight of phosphogypsum and process wastewater.

Phosphogypsum is the radioactive waste from processing phosphoric acid, which is predominantly used in fertilizer. Radium-226, found in phosphogypsum, has a 1,600-year radioactive decay half-life. In addition to high concentrations of radioactive materials, phosphogypsum and process wastewater can also contain carcinogens and toxic heavy metals like antimony, arsenic, barium, cadmium, chromium, copper, fluoride, lead, mercury, nickel, silver, sulfur, thallium and zinc.

More than 70 phosphogypsum stacks are scattered across Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Texas, Utah and Wyoming.

"We watch the situation at Piney Point with concern for Tampa Bay-area residents first and foremost. As the catastrophic release is contained, we hope this disaster will show the EPA the pressing need to regulate these materials now," said Kristen Schlemmer, legal director of Bayou City Waterkeeper. "By taking action, the EPA can protect other communities in Texas and along the rest of the Gulf Coast from similar disasters in years to come."

"We in Louisiana know the dangers of these phosphogypsum stacks. In January of 2020 the Mosaic Uncle Sam almost had a catastrophic failure of the north wall which would have released 450 million gallons of contaminated wastewater into the wetlands around Lake Pontchartrain," said Darryl Malek-Wiley, organizing representative for Sierra Club.

"This is an emergency," said Sharon Lavigne, executive director of RISE St. James. "Piney Point shows how close we live to the threat of a catastrophe. If the Uncle Sam Plant collapses, it will poison our water ways, ditches, bayous, canals and lakes and enter into the Gulf of Mexico."

"This terrible incident is yet another a chapter in the long, terrible story of phosphate mining in Florida and beyond," said Joe McClash, board chair of Suncoast Waterkeeper. "Without adequate regulation and enforcement, catastrophes like this will be repeated time and again."

"This latest large-volume toxic wastewater release at Piney Point is part of a decades-long history of phosphate fertilizer industry waste contamination occurring across the country and illustrates what happens when a federal problem is inappropriately left largely to the states to mishandle," said Rachael Curran, a People for Protecting Peace River attorney. "The EPA has long recognized the need for a comprehensive federal regulatory program designed to manage the unreasonable risks presented by phosphogypsum stacks. Yet despite a repeatedly demonstrated inability or unwillingness on the part of industry and state regulatory agencies to safely contain this harmful, radioactive, toxic waste threatening hundreds of thousands of Americans, EPA has failed to act meaningfully. Congress must investigate that failure before the next, inevitable disaster."

On Dec. 18, 2020, conservation and public health groups sued the Trump administration for approving the use of phosphogypsum in road construction. The decision reversed a longstanding EPA determination that phosphogypsum presents an unreasonable risk to human health and the environment.

"Having an adequate reverse osmosis system in place should be a requirement of the industry before approving operations, as opposed to having the public pay for it as an emergency operation later," said Michael Roth, president of Our Santa Fe River. "We know that gypstacks aren't a final dispositive solution; we should stop allowing them to be considered as such."

The Piney Point crisis is just the latest crisis on the long list of gypstack incidents in Florida and beyond.

In 2016 a sinkhole in the New Wales gypstack in Florida released 215 million gallons of process wastewater into the Floridan aquifer, which provides drinking water for 10 million people.

In 2009 a sinkhole in the PCS gypstack in White Springs, Florida released 84 million gallons of process wastewater.

In 2004 the Riverview gypstack in Florida discharged 65 million gallons of process wastewater into Hillsborough Bay, Florida.

Since 2019 the Uncle Sam gypstack in Louisiana has been moving laterally, causing concern of a catastrophic collapse.

* * *

April 12, 2021 To: The Honorable Frank Pallone, Jr., Chair, Committee on Energy and Commerce, 2125 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, DC 20515

The Honorable Carolyn Maloney, Chair, Committee on Oversight and Reform, 2157 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, DC 20515

Dear Chairman Pallone and Chairwoman Maloney: Florida made international news this week for an environmental disaster: the near-collapse of a radioactive, toxic phosphogypsum stack at Piney Point and the discharge of hundreds of millions of gallons of wastewater into Tampa Bay. The full extent of the environmental damage is still being assessed, including the expected development of a harmful algal bloom and fish kill. This looming environmental and public health catastrophe is but the tip of the iceberg. More than 70 mountainous piles of radioactive, toxic waste called "phosphogypsum stacks" plague communities in Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming./1 Phosphogypsum is the waste generated in creating phosphoric acid used in fertilizer,/2 stored in stacks precisely because of its radioactivity and unacceptable fatal cancer-causing risks, with both actively growing and "closed" stacks like Piney Point becoming more dangerous and less stable by the day.

In February, a coalition of 17 conservation and public health organizations petitioned the EPA for rule-making pursuant to the Resource Conservation Recovery Act and Toxic Substances Control Act concerning the regulation of phosphogypsum and process wastewater./3

However, to help shed light on this issue and identify additional resources that Congress could provide to address these dangerous waste piles, we request (1) a congressional hearing to investigate the regulatory framework of the phosphate industry and the failure to evaluate and minimize the unreasonable risk or ensure protection of human health and the environment through adequate regulation of phosphogypsum and process wastewater; and (2) identify areas where Congress can provide additional resources to help EPA quickly and comprehensively address this problem.

Phosphogypsum stacks have caused extensive groundwater contamination, dike breaches, leakage, seepage, sinkholes, and unpermitted discharges. Many are in BIPOC and/or low-wealth communities. Numerous documented environmental crises have resulted from inadequate phosphogypsum stack management over the past 30 years, including but not limited to:/4

* 2020 - $775,000 settlement between J.R. Simplot and EPA for commingling hazardous waste with exempt waste in Wyoming./5

* 2019 - Uncle Sam phosphogypsum stack moving laterally and in danger of collapsing in St. James Parish, Louisiana./6

* 2017 - EPA designated the Mississippi Phosphate phosphogypsum stack a Superfund site./7

* 2016 - New Wales phosphogypsum stack sinkhole releasing 215 million gallons of process wastewater into the Floridan aquifer in Mulberry, Florida./8

* 2015 - $2 billion settlement between Mosaic Fertilizer, LLC and EPA for comingling 60 billion pounds of hazardous waste with exempt waste in Florida and Louisiana./9

* 2013 - Mississippi Phosphates phosphogypsum stack discharge of 38 million gallons of process wastewater into Bayou Cosette, Mississippi./10

* 2012 - Mississippi Phosphates phosphogypsum stack discharge of 90 million gallons of process wastewater into Bayou Cosette, Mississippi./11

* 2011 - Piney Point phosphogypsum stack discharge of 170 million gallons of process water into Bishop's Harbor near Tampa Bay, Florida./12

* 2009 - PCS phosphogypsum stack sinkhole release of 84 million gallons of process wastewater in White Springs, Florida./13

* 2005 - Mississippi Phosphates phosphogypsum stack discharge of 17 million gallons of process wastewater into Bayou Cosette./14

* 2004 - Riverview phosphogypsum stack discharge of 65 million gallons of process wastewater into Hillsborough Bay, Florida./15

* 2003 - Piney Point phosphogypsum stack discharge of 248 million gallons into the Gulf of Mexico./16

* 2001 - Piney Point phosphogypsum stack discharge of 50 million gallons in Tampa Bay, Florida./17

* 1997 - Mulberry phosphogypsum stack discharge of 54 million gallons into the Alafia River, Florida./18

* 1994 - New Wales phosphogypsum stack sinkhole release of 80 million gallons of process wastewater in Mulberry, Florida./19

* 1992 - Mobil Mining and Minerals phosphogypsum stack discharge of 45 million gallons of phosphogypsum and process wastewater into Cotton Patch Bayou, Houston, Texas./20

In October 2020, without public notice or comment, the Trump administration reversed its longstanding scientific determination that the use of phosphogypsum in road construction presents an unacceptable risk to public health and approved the use of phosphogypsum in roads./21

Additionally, in response to the Piney Point crisis, local and state regulators have proposed an industry-supported, fast-tracked "solution" to inject the remaining hundreds of millions of gallons of toxic, acidic wastewater stored at this phosphogypsum stack underground into Florida's vulnerable karst geological formations, an unsafe, precedent-setting, out-of-sight and out-of-mind approach with potential migration concerns about contamination of groundwater used for drinking water and crop irrigation./22

This most recent, entirely predictable phosphogypsum stack failure at Piney Point and the troubling response is a stark reminder that millions of people around the nation are living close to these ticking time bombs, and that state and local officials are ill-equipped or unwilling to adequately manage their risks. We hope your Committees can help address this growing and urgent problem to help better safeguard our water and environment from future catastrophes like Piney Point. Please do not hesitate to contact me at [email protected] or (727) 490- 9190.

Thank you for your consideration and look forward to your reply.

Sincerely, Jaclyn Lopez, Florida Director, Center for Biological Diversity

On behalf of the following organizations:

Debra Campbell, A Community Voice - Louisiana

Dean A. Wilson, Executive Director, Atchafalaya Basinkeeper

Kristen Schlemmer, Legal Director, Bayou City Waterkeeper

Cat Chase, Cat Chase Media

John Cassani, Waterkeeper, Calusa Waterkeeper

Barbara Weckesser, Cherokee Concerned Citizens

Rev. Manning, Coalition Against Death Alley

Aaron Mintzes, Senior Policy Counsel, Earthworks

Aliki Moncrief, Executive Director, Florida Conservation Voters

Cynthia Sarthou, Executive Director, Healthy Gulf

Jennifer Walling, Executive Director, Illinois Environmental Council

Gail LeBoeuf, Inclusive Lousiana

John Capece, Waterkeeper, Kissimmee Waterkeeper

Lt General Russel Honore' (Ret), Louisiana Green Army

Glenn Compton, Chairman, ManaSota-88, Inc.

Carrie Clark, Executive Director, North Carolina League of Conservation, Voters

Michael Roth, President, Our Santa Fe River, Inc.

Andy Mele, Waterkeeper, Peace+Myakka Waterkeeper

Brooks Armstrong, President, People for Protecting Peace River, Inc.

Sharon Lavigne, Executive Director, RISE St. James

Dalal Anne Aboulhosn, Acting Deputy, Director of Policy, Advocacy and Legal, Sierra Club

Joe McClash, Board Chair, Suncoast Waterkeeper

Megan Eakins, Board Chair, Tampa Bay Waterkeeper

John S. Quarterman, Suwannee, Riverkeeper, WWALS Watershed Coalition, Inc.

Jen Lomberk, Matanzas Riverkeeper, Chair, Waterkeepers Florida

Footnotes:

1/ EPA, TENORM: Fertilizer and Fertilizer Production Wastes, https://www.epa.gov/radiation/tenorm-fertilizerand-fertilizer-productionwastes#tab-2.

2/ For every one ton of phosphoric acid created, five tons of phosphogypsum are produced.

3/ https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/epa-petitioned-to-protect-communities-environment-from-radioactivephosphogypsum-stacks-wastewater-2021-02-08/.

4/ EPA, Report to Congress on Special Wastes from Mineral Processing (1990) at 12-31.

5/ Complaint, United States of America v. J.R. Simplot Company and Simplot Phosphates, LLC, 20-CV-125-F (July 9, 2020), https://www.justice.gov/enrd/consent-decree/file/1293116/download.

6/ Louisiana DEQ, Uncle Sam Facility, Government Review of Root Cause Analysis (March 2, 2020).

7/ EPA, Mississippi Phosphates Corporation Site Pascagoula, Mississippi Factsheet (March 2017), https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2017-03/documents/mpc_fact_sheet_1_finalv2.pdf.

8/ Marshall, James, Mountains of Waste Menace Florida's 'Swiss Cheese' Aquifers, E&E NEWS (Apr. 9, 2020), https://www.eenews.net/stories/1062576963.

9/ Complaint, United States of America v. J.R. Simplot Company and Simplot Phosphates, LLC, 20-CV-125-F (July 9, 2020), https://www.justice.gov/enrd/consent-decree/file/1293116/download.

10/ Felony Information, United States of America v. Mississippi Phosphates Corporation, Case No.: 1:15-cr-00058-LG-RHW (2015).

11/ Beck, Marcus et al. 2018. Water Quality Trends Following Anomalous Phosphorus Inputs to Grand Bay, Mississippi, USA. Gulf and Caribbean Research, 29:1. http://ftp.sccwrp.org/pub/download/DOCUMENTS/WorkPlan/RestrictedJournalArticles/1018_GrandBayPhosphorousInputs.pdf.

12/ Salman, John. HRK knew of tearing problems before Piney Point spill, THE BRADENTON HERALD (July 6, 2012), https://www.bradenton.com/news/business/article34551327.html.

13/ Marshall, James, Mountains of Waste Menace Florida's 'Swiss Cheese' Aquifers, E&E NEWS (Apr. 9, 2020), https://www.eenews.net/stories/1062576963.

14/ Beck, Marcus et al. 2018. Water Quality Trends Following Anomalous Phosphorus Inputs to Grand Bay, Mississippi, USA. Gulf and Caribbean Research, 29:1. http://ftp.sccwrp.org/pub/download/DOCUMENTS/WorkPlan/RestrictedJournalArticles/1018_GrandBayPhosphorousInputs.pdf.

15/ Complaint for Natural Resource Damages, United States of America et al. v. Mosaic Fertilizer, LLC, Case No:13-cv-00386-RAL-TGW (2013).

16/ Hu, Chuanmin et al. 2003. Satellite monitoring of the FDEP Gulf dispersal of the Piney Point treated wastewater. University of South Florida at 2.

17/ Henderson, Carl. 2004. Piney Point Phosphate Plant: An Environmental Analysis at 40, UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA ST. PETERSBURG, https://digital.stpetersburg.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1062&context=honorstheses.

18/ Amundsen & Moore, Summary Report of Determination of Cause of Process Water Discharge From South Gypsum Stack Expansion Area, Mulberry Phosphates, Inc., Mulberry, Polk County, Florida at 1, FDEP Permit # MMR_FL0334944 (Jan 20, 1998).

19/ Marshall, James. Mountains of Waste Menace Florida's 'Swiss Cheese' Aquifers, E&E NEWS (Apr. 9, 2020), https://www.eenews.net/stories/1062576963.

20/ Consent Decree for Natural Resource Damages, United States of America v. Mobil Mining and Minerals Co., United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas, Case No.: H96-0695 (1996).

21/ https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/lawsuit-challenges-trump-epas-approval-of-radioactive-roads-2020-12-18/.

22/ Pittman, Craig. As danger of major breach recedes, Florida seeks long-term solution for troubled plant (April 6, 2019), https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/as-danger-of-major-breach-recedes-florida-seeks-long-term-solution-for-troubledplant/2021/04/06/f0c00748-96f8-11eb-b28d-bfa7bb5cb2a5_story.html.